1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a robot changing a multi-degree-of freedom attitude and a control device therefor.
2. Description of the Background Art
Recently, studies of service robots and human cooperation industrial robots have been actively conducted. These robots directly come into contact with humans, and hence guarantee of safety is important. In order to keep safety of the whole robots, it is required that each joint of a robot is flexible and lightweight. If rigidity of the joint lowers, however, control performance such as working accuracy and responsiveness of the robot is deteriorated.
In order to compatibly attain safety and controllability for a robot, a conventional articulated robot utilizes a wire driving mechanism redundant in view of the degree of freedom of joints (refer to Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2004-322283, for example).
Nonlinear springs and a tension sensor are introduced into the wire driving mechanism, for feeding back an actual rotation angle while controlling tension of each wire.
Thus, the conventional articulated robot controls both of an attitude and rigidity of the robot by controlling force of a redundant actuator.